


Project

by Darcerenity



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: #I love these guys, #King and Queen of the Dorks, #it kills me when he laughs, #liam is sunshine, #sentimental sunshine, #you drive me crazy, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 22:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10626441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darcerenity/pseuds/Darcerenity
Summary: Liam isn't the only one with projects. Sara has one in particular she'd like his help with.A quick drabble about Sara and Liam, set after the initial kiss but before they agree to a relationship.Some see-them-if-you-squint romance-specific spoilers.  Posted by me on tumblr. Edited slightly since.





	

“Hey, Kosta, you busy? I have a project I could use your eyes on.”

“Right there,” Liam said, and, almost even before he’d finished speaking, Sara could hear the doors to his storage closet sigh open.

She listened to his footsteps, feeling him draw closer with some sense she couldn’t quite name--a change in the air, a comfort, a stability--and then with the ones she could; a warmth radiating behind her left shoulder, blooming across her skin, a breath of musk and spice that made her close her eyes to fight the slight buzzing sensation that spiraled through her head for a split second.

“Ryder,” he said, the whisper of his breath across the back of her neck, making her fine hairs ripple and her skin pulse. “What do you need? You mentioned a project, but, all I see is--”

Her eyes locked with his, leaving him dazed, as if he’d stepped from a dark room into the full force of a sunny day 600 years gone. The… surprise?... that had stopped his sentence accelerated through him like the drop from a shuttle before the jump jet kicked in. And he should know.

“The Nomad,” Sara explained, wondering just what his sudden silence said. She swallowed, as if that could clear her mind as well as her throat. “It’s… uh…white. The nomad, but, also snow--”

Liam made a sound that might, conceivably, have been a stifled chuckle. “Right, right. What?”

And, just like that, there went her heart, jerking sideways a bit, as if he’d somehow made it just a bit lighter. 

Sara turned hastily back toward the blocky, solid safety of the large mechanical object in the room. “There’s snow. On Voeld. A lot of it.”

“Proper ice planet or something,” Liam murmured.

Sara coughed sheepishly and glanced at him again, this time subtly, without moving her head, from beneath partially lowered lashes, waving her hands rather vaguely in the general direction of the Nomad. “I… uh… I keep losing track of where I’ve parked, and it blends into the blizzards… and then I can’t find it… and then… “

“We all end up with frostbite.” Liam finished for her, sounding absolutely casual and conversational.

Awkwardness melting away into a completely involuntary smirk, Sara spun and cuffed him on the shoulder.

The _bare_ shoulder. Her hand, tingling as though she’d just touched Jaal instead of Liam, and gotten a bit of static shock for her trouble, slid across firm, corded muscle and silken skin, and she tilted almost imperceptibly off-balance.

Or maybe not so imperceptibly. Liam reached out and caught her with the lightest of touches. 

Her eyes locked with his again and she started to wonder if she’d forgotten how to breathe.

“And here I was hoping you hadn’t noticed,” Sara admitted, sounding more like she was whispering than joking.

Liam shrugged, his hand still on her waist, just above her hip, fizzing heat. “Safe to say the whole team has noticed.”

Sara closed her eyes, struggling not to lean into him and soften, struggling not to imagine his hand sliding lower, struggling not to remember, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Subtle isn’t exactly my style, is it?”

“Nothing wrong with subtle, but...” Liam trailed off, pulling his hand away to rub the back of his neck. Sara wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. “You want to paint it? Like a calling card?”

“Something noticeable, something that makes it instantly recognizable, like... a landmark. Something... familiar. I think that would be… better… don’t you?”

“I… yeah… Let’s get started.”


End file.
